ST. LOUIS -- On any other day of the year, the operations crew at Busch Stadium might have run into the same problem that Camden Yards experienced on Friday night when the Orioles launched six home runs in a 10-3 win over the Red Sox -- they ran out of fireworks.
As the Cardinals bombarded Seattle pitching for five home runs in an 11-9 loss on Saturday, Busch Stadium didn’t run out of pyrotechnics -- but perhaps only because it never used any.
It was Pooches in the Ballpark day, after all.
Dogs and fireworks just don’t mix, but the pups in the crowd on Saturday afternoon were treated to an air show, anyway. But not just from the home team, as the Mariners tagged St. Louis pitchers for three home runs and 19 hits in the affair.
Mariners starter Bryan Woo came in sporting a 2.25 ERA on the season, but before he knew what hit him, the Cardinals had swatted a pair of home runs to lead off the game, with JJ Wetherholt and Iván Herrera going back-to-back in the bottom of the first.
The combo shots by Wetherholt and Herrera marked the Cardinals’ first occasion of back-to-back home runs to lead off a game since Brendan Donovan and Alec Burleson did it against the Blue Jays on April 2, 2023.
Those first-inning blasts were the first home runs allowed by Woo all season -- but they were far from the last he would surrender on the day.
Nathan Church added his first of two home runs in the game, parking a solo shot into the Cardinals’ bullpen against Woo in the second inning. Pedro Pagés capped a four-run third inning by guiding a line drive narrowly inside the left-field foul pole for a two-run homer.
“I think we did a really good job scoring right away and just getting a bunch of hits off Woo,” Church said. “It was a good day for the offense.”
The Cardinals tagged Woo for seven earned runs on their four homers against him, knocking the 26-year-old from the contest after just three innings. It marked the first time that Woo had failed to pitch into the fourth inning of a start since his MLB debut on June 6, 2023 -- 75 starts ago for the talented right-hander.
When asked ahead of the series opener on Friday about the task of lining up against a sturdy Seattle rotation, Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol was eager to see how his group would stand up against the worthy challenge.
While the ERAs for both George Kirby and Bryan Woo (and Sunday’s scheduled starter, Emerson Hancock) all sat below 3.00 coming into the weekend, Marmol was also clear in his belief that there wasn’t a one-size fits all approach to facing these starters.
The way to attack Kirby wouldn’t be the same as the approach against Woo -- and the coaching staff was diligent in preparing its hitters for the respective game plans.
Saturday, the Cardinals were geared up for Woo’s strong fastball, which led to productive early results.
“We had a good approach against Woo and did exactly what we wanted against him,” Marmol said. “We turned his fastball around. Anything that was in the zone, hard, we did a really nice job against him. We executed our plan … and got into their ‘pen.
“Unfortunately, it’s one of those days where it’s the worst day for the other side of the ball to look the way it did.”
Matthew Liberatore’s uneven outing -- five runs on three Mariner homers across 3 1/3 innings pitched -- carried over into hiccups for the St. Louis bullpen.
Even the Cardinals’ most reliable relief arms weren’t immune from an unusual day at the ordinarily pitcher-friendly Busch Stadium. JoJo Romero and Riley O’Brien were both charged with a pair of earned runs in the loss.
The Cardinals used eight pitchers Saturday. Only three weren’t charged with at least one run in a game that saw eight home runs, 20 runs and 43 total hits between the two teams -- a hitting environment seldom seen at this ballpark.
“I’ve pitched in every ballpark and I have not seen a day like this,” Romero said. “It seemed like everything that was in the air was going very far and hit very hard -- never been a part of a game like this in my career.”